Ben Plotnicki

tttTD (row/burpees)

7:30

For starters, I had a decent warm up, and I have a question, and I already know the answer, but it always depends. AFter my warm up I thought I was ready, but then after the 25 cal row and about 5-6 burpee in, the thought crossed my mind to stop and let my heart rate come down and start over. That was the point were I felt I should’ve gotten my heart rate to in my warm up. I know when it comes to the open and qualifier, we always have to take into consideration the time and effort it takes for someone to judge us. I do think this would have helped me shave off at least 20-30 seconds of my overall time. The hardest part was without a doubt like you said in the set of 12 burpee, even though you are 40% done, that still a big chunk of reps and the jump just felt flat out hard. I did just push through the 16 without stopping though and was on pace where I wanted to be. Back on the rower, I think I was around 1400-1500 cal/hr, I did get it around 1600+ for the 15 and 1900+ for the 10. Overall, I loved the workout, loved the challenge, but short changed myself in my warm up. I need to be more disciplined with my warm ups and write them up before I go instead of just having a general idea.

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Rest to full recovery

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For time

6-5-4-3-2-1 ring MU

50 Du’s each round

6:57

My plan going in was to break up the 6 and 5 into small quick sets and see what happens, and told myself to stick to the plan, but I got going and did each set of muscle ups unbroken. The only negative with this was, I did intentionally take about 15-20 seconds after the DU before I attacked the rings, I know that’s probably more than we would like but there was still this fear in the back of my mind to not miss/fail a rep, as much of not as much exposure and just weaker with rmu. I took my time to pick up my rope and clipped on the DU after the round of 3 as I was trying to speed up at that point. Overall I’m super happy with this, and my shoulder felt the best today than it has in a long long time.

Part 1:

A. Squat clean; 3 reps on the min for 10 min 185lbs

This felt super light today, so I tried to hit 1 rep every 8 seconds

B. Two arm DB OH walking lunges; 50 feet x2; rest 2 min

Man, these are so tough and sky rocket my heart rate right about step 11/12 which is probably about the 35-40ft mark.

Part 2:

EMOM 6 min:

Odd- 30 sec max reps devil’s press 50/35#

6 on each

Even- 30 sec max reps strict pull ups

My pulling felt weak as poop today. I just felt tired and sore 9-7-8

Part 3:

Load 50/35# for all movements

6 min EMOM:

1- 10 single arm DB OH squat

2- 10 single DB alternating step ups 24/20″

3- 6-10 DB Box Step-overs

done

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6 min EMOM

1- 14 DB power Snatch

2- 14 DB Hang Clean and Jerk

3- 10 DB Power Clean

done

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6 min EMOM

1- 25 foot OH walking lunge

2- 12 DB hang split snatch

3- 12 DB hang clean and split jerk

done

For time

1200m row

60 deadlifts @ 225lbs

600m row

30 PC/PJ @ 135lbs

4:20.4 (1st row)

5:16 (deadlift)

2:30 (2nd row)

4:27

16:33

Recruited someone to do this with me that is way better then me on rowing and deadlifts. I had one goal and it was to minimize rest and transition during deadlifts, I did good for the first 3rd but then grip became and issue and then I felt some lat fatigue. Then it got in my head. I did not see those feelings coming or else I would’ve mentally prepared for them a little better. My plan was to do small sets and have a coordinated short rest. 2nd time on the rower might have been one of the worst feelings of rowing every (I have never rowed anything over the hour of power so I can’t speak on the time in the seat that long) – grip and hamstring yuckiness. Finally after about 45sec in I started to feel like a normal human being I tried to push the pace to finish. Chris got off the rower about 40sec ahead of me, so I picked up my pace a little more. As soon as I got off hands on the bar within 5 seconds (I’m proud and getting better at that), and did my 2nd rep and then I took a little longer break. At that point, I positioned myself so I could see him out of the corner  of my eye and my game plan was to do 4 reps for every 3 of his, I think I started getting close but I was grinding and fighting to do so, I faded around rep 19 and as much as I wanted to stay that pace I had a hard time. This was a great feeling though, to have to chase someone that is way better than me in these movements and I was comfortable getting uncomfortable trying to chase. I don’t care where my time stacked up in the big picture, I’m starting to sharpen some levels of pain that I have been missing and struggling to go to especially when it comes to weaknesses.

Part 1: Bouncy/Inverty

8 min EMOM:

Odd- 40-75 double unders

Even- 45 sec max reps strict hspu

4/3/3 — 4/3/3 — 4/2/2 — 4/2/1

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8 min EMOM:

Odd- 30 sec max reps box jumps 24/20″”””

Even- 30 sec max reps kipping hspu

13 on all for box jumps

15-13-12-13

Part 2: Boulders for Shoulders

A1. HS walk; 100 feet x3; rest 1 min

* 3 min cap

80ft-75ft-60ft

Started getting really frustrated. I could do decent as soon as I kicked up the first time but lost my efficiency when I would kick up again. 

A2. HR Push ups; 20 reps x3; rest 1 min

Had to go wide as my shoulder was not happy at this point

A3. Strict press; 3×3; rest 2-5 min

115-125×2

B1. Elbow on knee external rotations; 12-15×3; rest as needed

B2. Side plank powell raises; 12-15×3; rest as needed

B3. Bent over trap 3 raises; 12-15×3; rest as needed

Was unable to do the same weight in the single arm movements from right to left. External rotation in this plane of motion hurts, in standing it does not. In powell in the down position there was no pain if I turned to a pronated hand position there was no pain but staying in neutral grip it hurt

Part 3: Cool Down Choice

20 min easy aerobic cool down on your choice machine

* 60-75% max HR

I only did 10 minutes and did relaxation breathing, my traps were lit and knotted up and my neck felt like it had a humongous knot that hurt to move

A – Hang Power snatch – tough single

185

Might have had a little more in the tank but this felt clean crisp and solid. Also very positive notes warming up. My old protocol was to hit some complexes that started with a muscle snatch but haven’t been able to do that pain free since the shoulder injury until today. Stopped doing the muscle snatch @ 135 which is very encouraging. 

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Open workout 16.3 (BMU/Snatches)

7 full rounds – 91 reps

There are some major positives I take away from today. Not super happy with my score here and that is where the takeaways come in. First off, last night I was super excited to retest this and get after it, then when it was time to go, I wasn’t as excited and wasn’t mentally ready for the pain. I remember this workout from 2016 and I remember grip endurance was a big factor, and I remember breaking up the barbell work early. Outside of that I didn’t strategize much. I filmed the workout and here’s what I did well, from the last bar muscle up to the first snatch, I took 5 seconds to get my both hands on the barbell and move the first snatch, the current set up I have isn’t great for space and bar muscle up work (this could be an issue so today was good to see when transitions are imperative of how to maximize my space here). From what I remember of breaking this up early, I did sets of 4/3/3 on average which might be good but I did a piss poor job of getting my hands back on the bar, average break time over the course of the rounds I took breaks was 17 seconds, this is including the first round when I took 4 seconds and 2 sets. The last round I did the  power snatch ub and completed that round in 39 seconds. 

My major takeways from today are that I rested/breaked way too long. Transitions from bmu to bar I’m happy with. I do believe I have people here that when I tell them to not let my break too long will hold me to it, I mean lets be honest, if I do 10 reps in 4 sets, and rest 4-5 sec bt I’m already shorter rest time then I did today. Biggest break started happening in round 4&5. My best feedback is that in the last round when I needed to go, I could, and it hurt a little and I was completely fine afterwards, I have to remember that. Us old guys we don’t like feeling that pain from that dark place, but I have 3 weeks to fine tune the mentality that the pain is worth it and it is only temporary. Great learning tools today and use of video analysis to see the simple easy fixable mistakes, I just have to be willing to suffer. One other thing, I noticed in the top of the bmu I was pausing on top of the bar for no reason, just that moment before you start the next rep, I feel like I cleaned that up in round 3, if I need the break then fine but not for 3 reps.

(Ring Mu x 1 + Ring dip x 3) * 2-3 ‘reps’, rest 2-3 min bt complexes x 4

2 reps, having to go early in the am, I didn’t get a chance of due diligence to warm up the shoulder so I stayed conservative. 

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On a 16 min clock

5 Rounds for time

250m Ski

12 Box Jumps @ 24″”

1 rope climb to 15ft

9:48

into, in remaining time

Find a 2RM hang snatch

195

Rope climb access is only to 12’ so i started each rope climb from a seated position. Tried to keep each ski set around 1:52 – could’ve probably pushed here a little harder and tried to stay around 1:50 or slight under that, pushed a little harder than I normally would on the box jump. Really felt better as I went on each attempt of the hang snatch. I did a 185 before and my thoracic almost collapsed so I made a conservative increase to 195 which was really crisp and clean.

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Row 2 min @ 1200 cal/hr, directly into

AMRAP 2 min DU’s, rest 4 min

Row 2 min @ 1200 cal/hr, directly into

AMRAP 2 min wallballs (20lbs to 10′), rest 4 min x 2 times through

DU → 162 – 195

WB → 47 – 46

Second round it was a little more work to keep cal/hr above 1200 except for last one, although I knew there was no more rounds, I also trusted my mechanics and just dealt with the discomfort. On the 2nd time through I took a different approach as well as trying to really tightening up my transitions, with DU I broke intentionally at 75, took about 10-15 seconds and then finished the set as time expired. With wall ball, I made a really fast transition and did 10 right away, and took a quick break, I broke again and that was to take a quick time check, was pretty sure I couldn’t will my way to finish unbroken mentally. It was the shoulder endurance that created my mental need to rest.

40 min around the world, @ or just above conversation effort, sweaty but sustainable

12 burpees to 6in touch

20 cal row

12 bar facing burpees

20 cal bike

I think I went through 6 full times and was close to 3. Was averaging about 5:30-6:00 round, what I really worked on here was footwork and various tempo and speed for heart rate control with the bar facing burpee. This was really good practice for me of consistent footwork and turns to maximize efficiency. 

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8 min box breathing from supine @ 3162 tempo

done

For time

50 chest to bar pullups

50 kipping HSPU 

25 dbl DB hang squat cleans @ 50/hand 

25 strict HSPU 

19:40

C2b done in 15/15/10/10 – rested about 15sec bt sets, in most cases this would definitely be too long, felt good all the way through, maybe one extra set with shorter rest times bt? Kipping hspu – no plan just started going and this would be a bad idea when it mattered …12/10/8 (and this is the point I felt was too big and aggressive for what was ahead), my tell tale is the negatives becoming slower, from there I did I think 3 or 4 smaller sets to finish off the last 18 reps. Db squat clean, wanted to do big sets but I could feel it lighting up my traps and knew this was not what I wanted to feel before the strict hspu so I went with a 5 and then all 4’s. I wish I could remember exactly when I finished these 25 reps to determine how long it took the strict work but it was all done in singles. If I had to guess I was getting about 4 reps per minute on some and 5 on others. Had someone with me and during the last 8-9 reps he was counting me down every 15sec, this was good at this point because I didn’t feel like I was going to fail at that rest time because none of my reps were major grinders. This is a good feeling as an afterthought because that’s when I know I should push that a little more, but that’s only in hindsight.

(All hspu were done to about a ¼” deficit which I know doesn’t create that much of a limitation, I ordered the gymnastics mat and it should be in within a week).

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A1 – Squat clean x 1.1.1 @ 235-255, rest 8 sec/30 sec

235 – might have been the heaviest 235 I have ever lifted in my life

A2 – 25 toes to bar, sets must be at least 5 or more, rest 30 sec

25 UB (was a bad idea when I kicked up for the handstand walk, but I’m glad I did it each round)

A3 – 100ft HS walk for time, rest 4 min x 2 sets

I did not see exactly my time to complete the 2 sets of the distance but I worked on good efficiency and felt much better today than the 2 handstand walking pieces last week. Shoulder endurance and breathing after about 50ft is when I notice the faults to be way more, and that is about the time when I can feel the lumbar overextension, I can feel it and fix it for the most part up until 75ft in today’s piece but much harder to fix for the last 25ft from shoulder fatigue.

9/17 (DSGN overlap)

On the 8 minutes for 4 sets:

14 Burpees to 6″” reach

28 wall balls

14 bar facing burpees

14 box jumps 24in

3:36–3:37–3:54–4:17

In sets 1-3 I felt completely in control, was forcing the pace on both burpee, the 6” reach is the one I had a target pace more than the other. On bar facing, I just tried to stay low and have crisp footwork. All sets of wall ball UB, the box jumps probably had the biggest impact but with those being last for me it was not a problem. On set 4, I really tried to slow down the 6” burpee because I felt the fatigue creeping in big time, this time on WB, it was sheer will that allowed me to power through. The bar facing in this set, I started the first 5-6 reps in survival mode and then found a gear to quicken the pace and focus on those minor details of staying low and good footwork.

Part 2: 50/35# DB EMOM’s 

9 min EMOM:

1- 10 DB front squat 

2- 25 foot front rack lunge 

3- 10 DB Box Step-overs

This was so freaking hard. I felt so taxed going into this that it was a straight up grind. The front squat and lunge were manageable but everytime I started getting everything under control, my heart rate, my mind, my soul, the step overs sucked all of that right back out of me. 

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9 min EMOM

1- 12 DB power Snatch 

2- 12 DB Hang Clean and Jerk 

3- 8 DB Power Clean

Looked at this as an opportunity to work on these movement under extreme fatigue mentally and physcially. 

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9 min EMOM

1- 25 foot OH walking lunge 

2- 10 DB hang split snatch

3- 10 DB hang clean and split jerk

Did all OHWL with right hand overhead, I feel that’s the side that my thoracic gives me the biggest challenge to maintain good position. 

Part 3: Core

A1. L-sit; 15 seconds x3-5; rest 45 sec

A2. Inverted hang on bar; 15 seconds x3-5; rest 45 sec

Got these 2 done and didn’t have the energy to have high quality in completing the B series

B1. Arch body rock; 45 seconds x2-3; rest as needed

B2. Side plank; 30 seconds x2-3; rest as needed

B3. Hollow hold on GHD; 30 seconds x2-3; rest as needed

B4. Plank to pike with feet on rower seat; 10 reps x2-3; rest as needed

AMRAP 20 min

40 row cals

30 power snatches @ 75lbs

20 1-arm DB OHS @ 50lbs (10/side)

10 bar MU

2+17

Broke the power snatches up in 4 sets, with quick short breaks, new I would have no problem with the OHS and wanted to do the bmu in 1-2 sets. Controlled heart rate well and was comfortable working with a high heart rate throughout the workout, but bmu skyrocketed the heart rate. BMU was 6/4 in 1st and 5/5….might have rested a bit too much bt those sets, but the positives I did do today was transition quick from 1 movement to the next. 

I broke some rules today and did DSGN part 2 C&J density with michelle today!